Excuse any typos, I am testing this question as I type.
Why do different types of alcohol affect us differently?
Compared to other types of liquer: When drinking rum I get tired. When drinking vodka I get mellow. When drinking tequila I have a problem with memory. When drinking whiskey, as I am right now now, I get really hyper and get really into whater TV show I am watching (feel an urge to shout at the screen and such).
Why the different feelings for each type of booze? It is a chemical reaction, or am I making this up?
I never really thought it did personally. While many others have been messed up on vodka, they got really f*cked up on T E q U i l A man! I don’t get it.
Was the rum taken with coke?
Was the vodka taken juice?
Was the tequila taken straight?
How much did you drink?
How much was the proof and alcohol content?
What OTC drugs and prescriptions are in your system? What about additives like caffeine?
When you consumed these, were you on a full or empty stomach?
Were you depressed, or upbeat during the consumption?
In know this is GQ, but I think these have more of a factor on how you feel then the actual type of alcohol itself. Too many variables at play to say for sure.
I like to think of myself as pretty accomplished drinker. Gin is usually my poison, but I always have most types of spirits in stock and usually a comfortable amount of beer in the fridge (mostly for guests or when I’m barbecuing.)
I’ve honestly never noticed any significant difference in how the different types affect me. I may be much more prone to get highly inebriated from liquor than beer, but that’s just a matter of volume, liquor has a higher alcohol content by volume so you have to consume less liquid in total to get drunk.
I want to add that this is from about 4 years personal research. It is psychological? I mean, it could be that I know that I am drinking rum and expect to get tired, therefore I do. But over such a long time span that doesn’t seem likely.
Different sugar contents perhaps?
I know right now I am drinking whiskey and getting really worked up about the TV show Heroes (No, don’t just off that building!!! and such) while when I watched this show under the influence of rum it barely got my attention and I just felt like napping.
I hadn’t eaten for about 3 hours and I was under the same sleep schedule each time. Your thoughts dopers?
*This might not have a factual answer due to lack of reaserch, so mods feel free to move to another forum. But really, I swear this is reasearchable.
Depends on the parts of the booze that’s not alcohol, also.
Red wine is said to be good for the heart (not white). This has been linked to its tannins, which lower blood pressure (and which are not present in white wine). This in turn explains why those of us with low blood pressure get headaches real fast from red wine, but not from white.
Maybe your mood determines what type of drink you order?
I wouldn’t order rum on a cold grey day, just as I wouldn’t drink whiskey at the beach. To make this a scientific test, you would need to try all drinks randomly and not based on your personal preference at the moment.
Different types of alcohol affect you differently because they are different chemicals. Ethanol, methanol and isopropyl alcohol, for instance, are all quite different in their effects on physiology.
Within types of likker, the alcohol is ethanol, and the effects of the ethanol are identical from one type of drinking alcohol to another–beer, wine, tequila, vodka…it’s all the same ethanol to your body.
Of course you may drink at different rates, wtih different associated chemicals in what you are drinking, different associated fluids and foods and different concentrations of alcohol in the primary drink. It is those differences, plus an enormous amount of psychological overlay, that accounts for the perceived differences. I read an interesting anecdote, for example, about getting folks to feel drunk based on a perception they were drinking an alcoholic beverage that was, in fact, alcohol free.
I’ve done tons of research on this so I know what I’m talking about I just can’t remember any of it.
Anywhooo, I suspect that if you drank 80 proof Vodka, Whiskey, Rum and Tequilla that you’d feel roughly the same effect from each. People tend to mix them differently so that obviously plays a role.
Vodka and fruit juices (different sugars), Whiskey and cola (different sugars and caffeine), Tequilla (usually straight up), and Rum and cola (see whiskey).
Jeager and RedBull also comes to mind, and there are a lot of energy drinks being mixed with hard liquor these days. Beer and wine have different yeasts and organic compounds in them that may affect persons differently. Each person has a slightly different speed and efficiency at which they metabolise alcohol and that even changes with the person depending on your mood, time of day, what you’ve eaten/drank recently, etc.
There are lots of variables and you would need to establish a controlled situation to really give this a test.
One thing I’ve always thought and others I know have felt is that too much gin makes you maudlin but maybe someone just suggested it and we all agreed so if we ever drink gin we make ourselves feel down.